


mercy

by lesbonaruto



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, and sakura deserves better than the bullshit she's gotten for the past couple years, in which sakura is angry as she has every right to be, of hospitals and veiled threats, the burden of forgiveness is a heavy one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-10
Updated: 2020-10-10
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:08:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26931133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lesbonaruto/pseuds/lesbonaruto
Summary: After the battle at the Valley of End, Sasuke is visited by and old comrade. She offers sliced fruit and hard truths.
Relationships: Haruno Sakura & Uchiha Sasuke
Comments: 2
Kudos: 40





	mercy

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this enraged.

Sakura set down the bowl of sliced apples by his bedside.

He'd been expecting her visit. Years later, and she was still bringing him fruit he wouldn't eat as he lay in a hospital bed clinging to life. 

He turned to her. There were so many things he needed to say. There was nothing he could say. 

"How's Naruto?" Was what he settled for.

She sighed, tucking a stray pink hair behind her ear, and pulled a chair over to his beside. 

"He's in stable condition. The wounds were serious, but with enough treatment they can heal naturally without draining too much stamina. The chakra burns are too severe to leave to chance, so I'm overseeing his healing myself. We'll have to keep him under for the next couple of days at least." She took a pause and looked out the window. "His arm is gone forever."

Sasuke looked away. 

She reached over and grabbed his chart from where she left it on the bedside table. 

"You also sustained lethal injuries, the most serious of which are internal. Your optic nerves--" 

At this, Sasuke whipped his head back around, preparing himself for the worst.

"--sustained severe damage, and we advise you not to activate your Sharingan at all for the next couple weeks, lest the strain damage it permanently."

He clicked his tongue in annoyance, mostly out of force of habit. He didn't like being told what to do. Sakura let it slide. 

"Sasuke. I want to make one thing clear." 

He turned to face the window again, expecting some tongue-and-cheek reprimand, or worse, an appeal to his heart. 

"If you ever go that far against Naruto again... hell, you go that far on anyone I care about, you're not going to wake up in hospital with your wounds treated and bandaged." 

He processed her words. She had already gotten up to leave before he responded.

"Will I wake up at all?" 

She turned back around. "I think that depends on you." 

This time she had her hand on the doorknob when he spoke. 

"Naruto would never forgive you." 

He took note of the way her hand clenched the doorknob so hard her knuckles turned white. When she turned back around there was a cold smile on her face. 

"He forgave you, didn't he?" 

He had nothing to say to that. He had nothing to say to her at all. No words that wouldn't sound empty and contrite. 

But she still had words left in her. He could tell she was brimming with things to say, words that would twist the knife. But instead she went with the truth. 

"Besides, Sasuke. You and I both know it would be a _mercy_." She almost spat the last word, as if it was a curse. And in some ways, it was. 

He couldn't bring himself to watch her leave, this time for good. Instead, he ate the apples she had sliced, knowing they would be the last. 

**Author's Note:**

> I could probably write an essay on forgiveness in Naruto, on understanding the theme so integral to this story. It's something I appreciate and hold dear, the idea that someone can make mistakes, horrible, horrible mistakes, and be absolved of their wrongs by the people who love them. But it's easy to forgive someone when you don't live in their world and they haven't hurt you personally. 
> 
> Sasuke was wronged, more than any child should be. That cannot excuse the ways in which he hurt people. One cannot be removed from the other; he is one who brings suffering and suffers. And bless Naruto for his great, big, beautiful heart that can love and forgive nigh indiscriminately. However. Naruto is not, by definition, the standard of the world. And no one else should be expected to follow in his footsteps if they're not ready. 
> 
> All that is to say: Sakura has every reason to hold a grudge. To bear mistrust. To take her time forgiving, if it ever happens at all. And I am sick and tired of fans making excuses for Sasuke while holding Sakura to an impossibly high standard. Let her not forgive.


End file.
